1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to protective vests or other enclosures worn about a person's upper torso, and more particularly, to a cooling mechanism and related method for cooling the body of a user wearing such a protective vest.
2. Description of the Related Art
To help prevent fatal injuries to law enforcement officers, many police and other law enforcement departments mandate that officers where a protective bulletproof vest while on duty. However, during summer months in the Southern and Southwestern regions of the United States, such protective vests can become extremely uncomfortable, trapping body heat and moisture, and interfering with the evaporation of sweat. In some cases, officers become so uncomfortable that they remove such protective vests, posing the risk of serious injury in the event of an unexpected confrontation with a violent subject.
Those skilled in the art have in the past attempted to solve such problem. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,128,784 to Frank discloses a protective vest having air-circulating conduits incorporated therein. However, the apparatus disclosed by Frank does not appear to have any mechanism to forcibly circulate such air through such conduit.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,131,645 to Barr discloses a cooling system for use by law enforcement officers while riding or sitting in a vehicle, and relies upon cooled air supplied by the vehicle air conditioning system. A flexible hose has one end secured over an air conditioning vent and another end that is inserted under the user's protective vest. In an emergency, a quick-disconnect feature allows the user to disconnect the hose coupling so that the officer can rapidly leave the vehicle. However, no mechanism is provided for cooling the officer once the officer leaves the vehicle.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,282 to Wagner, an air cooling apparatus is disclosed for cooling a bullet proof vest wherein a tubular belt worn about the user's waist has air discharge holes formed around the belt for releasing cooling air under the protective vest. The tubular belt couples with a flexible hose designed to fit over an air conditioning vent within a vehicle in a manner similar to that described above in conjunction with the patent to Barr. In addition, the tubular belt can also be connected to a blower unit having a motor-driven fan coupled to a source of electrical power.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,011 to Siman-Tov, et al. discloses a portable cooling device for use with body armor systems to evaporate sweat and provide cooling. A belt incorporates an air moving device, operated by rechargeable batteries, for distributing air through channels formed within the vest.
Recently issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,260,201 to Rankin discloses a portable cooling device formed in a garment that includes tubular members interconnected by a connector tube. Openings formed in the tubular members distribute cooling air about the user's body. Air is pumped to the connector tube by an air pump via a supply tube. The electrical supply for the air pump is a plug adapted to engage a cigarette lighter of an automobile; batteries may also be used. Alternatively, an air conditioning vent of a vehicle can be used as the source of cooling air.
However, none of the devices described above are adapted to be quickly and easily inserted or removed, while at the same time being self-contained for use both inside and outside of a vehicle. Moreover, none of the devices described above is easily adjustable to suit the specific needs of a particular user. In addition, the devices described above are relatively expensive, or require significant modification of the design of existing bullet proof vests.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a protective vest assembly having a cooling system for circulating fresh, cooling air between the vest and the user's body.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a protective vest assembly that is adapted to be used both within a motor vehicle as well as remote from the motor vehicle.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide such a protective vest assembly that can easily be adapted to existing protective vests already in use by law enforcement officers.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide such a protective vest assembly that is relatively inexpensive to manufacture.
A further object of the present invention is to provide such a protective vest assembly that can be quickly and easily disconnected from an electrical power source.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide such a protective vest assembly that can be quickly and easily inserted or removed by a user.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide such a protective vest assembly that can be easily adjusted by a user to suit the specific needs of the user.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art as the description of the present invention proceeds.